Estes' Troubles on the Road Continue in Boston

Jason Burke | Jul 10, 2024

Jul 9, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Joey Estes (68) throws a pitch against the Boston Red Sox in the first inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports / David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Oakland A's manager Mark Kotsay understands his role with the team. Wins and losses are the name of the game, but he also understands that a number of players on his roster are still young and developing into big leaguers under his watch.

In his previous start, A's right-hander Joey Estes fired a 92-pitch complete game shutout at home against the Los Angeles Angels. Last night in Boston, he last just 1 2/3 innings against a tough Red Sox lineup at Fenway, giving up seven hits, eight runs, and he walked a batter, hit a batter, and struck out a batter. It was arguably his worst outing this season, or his young career. His start against the Angels was his best.

That's the name of the game with a young roster.

Kotsay told reporters afterwards that Estes has been "fighting a bug" and that he wasn't 100 percent. As for the reason for his struggles, the A's manager said "A lot of mistakes in the middle of the plate. These guys are aggressive. They took advantage of Joey's ability to throw strikes and barreled him up. Overall, it's one of those outings where you look at it, one it's a health thing, but also you can learn from it. These are the ups and downs we talk about with young pitchers."

When Kotsay went out to remove his starter, he told Estes to keep his head up and that he gave the team everything he had.

People will look at the wins and losses on Kotsay's managerial record and draw their own conclusions about how they think he's doing leading this team, but he has never lost the clubhouse, despite all of the losses, and it's because of moments like that. He chose to be supportive of his 22-year-old starter who'd just had a pretty rough outing, and those interactions mean a lot when you're attempting to build a team.

Estes' road woes

While he was a bit under the weather for his start on Tuesday, his outing at Fenway followed a trend so far this season of not quite having his best stuff on the road. Estes has logged nearly identical innings totals both at the Coliseum and away from it (28 1/3 vs 28 2/3), but the results have varied greatly.

At home, Estes is a young up-and coming starting pitcher that's putting the league on notice. He holds a 1.91 ERA in four starts, which is an average of seven innings per outing. The complete game helps that average in a small sample size, but he has also allowed just 18 hits in 28 1/3 innings, walked two, and struck out 16. That's good for a 0.71 WHIP.

On the road he has a 9.10 ERA, and he has given up 38 hits in 28 2/3 innings across seven starts, which is just over four innings per outing. Estes has allowed 29 runs, walked 12, and struck out 28 away from Oakland. That all adds up to a 1.74 WHIP.

Part of the development process for Estes will be utilizing his command of the baseball to live outside of the strike zone a bit more. According to Statcast, this season Estes has been in the zone with 59.5% of his offerings, which is among the tops in the league for pitchers with at least 40 innings.

For a lot of young pitchers the A's have brought in in recent years, the struggle has been to get them into the zone. For Estes, the trick may be to get him out of the zone a little more often and get more swings on pitches that aren't strikes.

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